Mutant and Proud
by Penstruck
Summary: Victoria discovers her powers when she is 8 years old. When she hears of Charles Xavier and his work on mutations she figures he is the only one that can help her. But she doesn t know what she is in for when she finally meets him and the other mutants.
1. Chapter 1

It is a particular busy day in the bar. Victoria is sitting in her usual corner and watches the crowd drinking and cheering while sipping at her own drink. A very drunk man sees her sitting all by herself so he approaches her. When she notices him she gives him an annoyed glance. Nonetheless the man still proceeds to come nearer and finally sits in the chair opposite her.

"What is such a beautiful young girl doing all by herself in this dark corner?" he gives her an insincere smile.

"Please leave me alone."

"But why? Are you a little shy? Don´t be, I won´t bite!" he winks, smile going broader.

"I asked you nicely to please leave me alone, Sir."

"Oh! Come on, now!" he stands up and walks around the table to slide next to Victoria on the bench. "You don´t really want that."

Victoria feels a hand going up her leg, she closes her eyes sighing. The next second the man jumps up from the bench nearly knocking over the table. His left hand clutches his right wrist, he stares down on his right hand in shock. It´s scarlet.

"You fucking witch!" he yells out in pain. "What did you do to me?!"

"I asked you nicely. Twice if I remember correctly." She answers him calmly, lazily taking another sip of her drink.

"Fuck you!" he spits out and practically runs back to his friends. They all laugh at him for being rejected. The last words Victoria catches before the group is too far away are "crazy bitch.", she smiles and nods, "Kind of true." she whispers to herself.

All thoughts of the previous incident are wiped away when the door opens. Victoria raises her eyes to see who is entering the bar. It is a man she knows very well, although he probably never heard of her. She is watching him for quite some time now, twice a week in his usual bar. She sits in a dark corner and he does what he always does: Drinking, talking, laughing, and picking up women. Completely oblivious to the fact that he´s being watched.

The man of Victoria´s interest is called Charles Xavier. He works at Columbia University and is well known for his works in genetics and mutations. And Victoria has a lot of questions when it comes to mutations.

When she was 8 years old she first discovered that she was different. Victoria was playing with her favourite doll, it had long blonde hair and a beautiful pink dress with sunflowers on it. While she was combing the doll´s hair Victoria´s sister Elaine became jealous. She went over to her sister and tried to snatch the doll from Victoria´s hands. But Victoria held on tight and the doll´s head snapped off the body. She was furious, jumped up and grabbed her sister´s hand. Elaine started screaming and the girl´s parents came running to see what was going on.

When Victoria finally let go of her sister´s hand, Elaine collapsed to the ground. The doll´s head rolled out from under the crying girl, Victoria took it and tried to reattach it to the body. Meanwhile her parents were trying to find out what made Elaine scream and cry. When she finally showed her hand to them their eyes went wide, the mother let out a small gasp. Elaine´s hand looked as though she stuck it in boiling water, all swollen and bloody with loose, burned skin hanging from some of the fingers. Elaine was taken to the hospital and Victoria was taken to a school for troubled children. She lived there throughout the year and spend only the summer with her family that was obviously afraid of her.

"McDougall´s Christian Institution for Special Boys and Girls" taught her that she is abnormal, a freak. It taught her that there is no place for girls like her, that she has to learn how to be normal and how to fit into society. The institution taught her that her special abilities are in fact disabilities. They were given to her by the devil himself and she has to get rid of them or she will rot in hell forever. Her home taught her that even in a school full of mentally ill and violent students she was the outsider, pointed at, laughed at.

On her 14th birthday Victoria decided she learned enough. She waited until the house went dark and everybody was asleep, then she grabbed her pre-packed bag and climbed out the window. Her room was on the second floor but she had no trouble cushioning the rough landing. She knelt in the grass checking the windows behind her for anyone who might have noticed something. When all windows stayed dark she ran across the lawn and vanished into the woods.

Victoria is sitting on her bench, eyes closed and remembers the time after she left school. After living on the streets for a couple of months she was lucky enough to find kind people that took her in but they couldn´t tell her anything about her abilities either. They encouraged her, though, to make good use of her powers and not to hide or fight them. She was able to go back to school, a normal school. And when she enrolled at Columbia she heard of Charles Xavier for the first time. She opens her eyes again.

There he is. The man that possibly holds all the answers she is seeking. When she first saw him - in the very same bar from the very same spot – she was surprised by how young he was, and how handsome. She wasn´t sure whether to trust him, he seems to pick up woman after woman without even caring who they are. Would he help her or would he try to make her one of his affairs? So there she is now, stalking him for weeks, still not sure how to approach him, still not sure if he´s trustworthy enough. And maybe a little scared that he isn´t able to help her, too.

Out of the corner of her eyes she sees another man coming over to her. This one sits down next to her right from the beginning.

"Do you mind?"

"Yes."

"I´m Marcus."

"I don´t care."

Men come over to her quite often. They offer drinks and compliments and she used to let them off really easy. But after time she got rather annoyed by their persistence and incapability to just leave her alone if she asks them to.

"Why are you all alone?"

"Please leave." She sounds exhausted.

"Where is your boyfriend, sweetie?"

There is that hand on her thigh again. Seconds before she can singe him someone sits down on her other side taking the man´s hand off of her leg.

"Her boyfriend is here. Thank you for keeping her company. You may leave now."

While the man leaves Victoria turns around to look at her rescuer, preparing to send him on his way, too. But bright blue eyes and a warm and broad smile are telling her that Charles Xavier finally noticed his stalker.

"Thanks." She stumbles after several seconds of awkward, mouth-hanging-open staring.

"You´re welcome. Would you like another drink?" he indicates her empty glass.

"Yes, please."

He puts his finger to his temple and his smile slowly fades away.

"Ehm… what would you like?"

"Gin and tonic, please." She smiles because she knows exactly what just happened.

"Coming up! I´m Charles Xavier, by the way." He tells her while standing up, his wide smile back in place.

"Victoria. Nice to meet you, Mr. Xavier."

"Charles, please."

"Charles." She nods and he leaves for the bar. Over time she noticed Charles little trick. He would always guess a girls favourite drink correctly after touching his temple. Victoria assumes he has a special ability just like her. And it has something to do with mind reading. He just tried to read her mind and search for her drink of choice. She could feel it but also shield her mind from him. That´s a new discovery, but then it was the first time someone tried to read her mind.

Charles returns with their drinks and sits back down next to her. Victoria notices a curious look on his face. She caught his interest, now she just has to find a way to somehow change the topic to mutations and the possible effects on humans. She reaches for the drink, Charles brought her, with her left hand when Charles sees what he has been looking for. He takes her hand and strokes his thumb over a mole at the base of her little finger.

"Moles. A simple mutation of skin cells. They make you unique. The most beautiful women in the world are often famous for their moles. Ever heard of Marilyn Monroe?"

"Of course. Couldn´t find anything better?"

"Excuse me?"

Charles can´t know that Victoria knows a lot of his lines. And the mutation thing seemed to be his favourite and – Victoria noticed – his most successful flirting technique. She is a little disappointed that Charles takes her for one of her usual acquaintances.

"I´m sorry. It´s just, I´ve been here before and heard you using your mutant-line." She laughs and tries to smooth things over.

"Oh! That´s embarrassing."

"No, no. It´s, ehm, kind of flattering, I guess. I´ll play along: Mutant and proud. How´s that?"

"You just made it ten times worse." He laughs, too, now.

"I know, I´m not good at this. You better take the lead."

"Since you already ruined my line I guess you could just tell me a little bit about yourself?"

She proceeds to tell him about her life leaving out bits and pieces here and there to not give away too much. Although she reckons this is the moment to tell him about her powers she just can´t find the right words. She also doesn´t want to drive him away because he is really nice and she is quite enjoying her time with him.

After she finished without telling him anything too revealing he tells her his story. They sit and talk for a while. He finds more moles on her arm, neck and face and seems to be honestly interested in them.

"You really are a mutant." He absently states while stroking a group of little black dots on her arm. She just smiles and mutters "I know."

After a while he gets up again to get new drinks for them. She leans back in her seat and takes a deep breath. While watching him making his way through the crowd her gaze wanders down and finally stays on his backside. After a few seconds she realises what she is staring at and looks at the ceiling instead. But she can´t stop thinking about how good-looking he is. That is not what she came for. However, it might be what she will stay for.

When Charles comes back she avoids any thought that might has to do with his bottom. Although he obviously can´t read her mind she doesn´t want to risk it.

"I´m so sorry. They´re out of ice!" he says and hands her one of the glasses.

This is the moment. Now is the perfect moment to show him what really makes her a mutant. She is scared but she knows she has to do it sooner or later and there might not be a better opportunity.

"No problem. I can fix that." She hesitantly whispers.

"You can what?" he looks at her in surprise, eyes wide.

She just nods and reaches for his glass. She puts her flat hand on the glass´ bottom with him still holding it. When frost spreads on the outside of the glass and Charles feels the cold he first looks down to his hand and his now perfectly chilled drink and then back into Victoria´s expecting brown eyes. When he says nothing she takes her own glass and does the same to it.

"You…" he begins.

"I´m sorry I wasn´t completely honest with you."

"That´s why I can´t read your mind."

"I felt you doing it and was able to block it. I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to ask you for help but I didn´t know how to approach you."

"That´s why you were sitting here all alone for weeks?"

"You noticed me?"

"Of course I did! A beautiful young woman sitting in a dark corner of a bar, rejecting guy after guy."

"I´m sorry."

"For what?"

"Stalking you." She avoids his eyes, too embarrassed to look at him.

"It´s fine. I´m glad you´re here!"

"You are?"

"Of course I am! It´s exciting to meet others."

"Are there many?"

"I don´t know. I only know one other. And now you. Come with me."

He stands up and holds out his hand to her.

"Where are we going?"

She takes his hand and they leave the bar.


	2. Chapter 2

"Where are we going?" she asks again.

"You have to meet Raven! She´ll be overjoyed."

"Raven? Who is Raven?"

"She is my friend. Like a sister."

They are still running down the streets. While she is getting out of breath he seems to be perfectly fine which makes her wonder for how much longer they´ll have to run like that. Just when she is about to stop to catch her breath they turn a corner and come to a halt in front of a huge gate. It shines bright and silver in the dim light of a street lamp nearby. A huge iron-forged X flaunts in the middle and the bars end high above them in golden spikes. As soon as they approach the gate swings open and the two of them walk up a path which is surrounded by neatly trimmed grass and flower beds in every colour. An old willow stands aside a great mansion at the end of the driveway. They walk up to the porch to find a blonde girl sticking her head out of the front door.

"Raven! This is Victoria."

"Oh, it´s all right. I was just about to go to bed anyway." Raven answers with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"No, no. It´s not like that! She is one of us!"

Raven looks at Victoria in confusion, Victoria guesses Raven just assumed her to be one of Charles's one-night-stands.

"You are what?" she asks her.

"Well, hello I am Victoria, nice to meet you. And yes, he´s right. I´m a mutant."

Raven says nothing while Charles starts to nervously rock back and forth on his heels.

"Let´s all go inside!" he proclaims with a great gesture towards the door.

Raven steps aside to let them in and Victoria follows Charles inside. They pass the staircase in the hallway to find the library behind an oak door to their left. While Charles goes to make some tea the two women sit down opposite each other. Raven just openly stares at Victoria making her very uncomfortable.

"Ehm, how…how long do you live here?" she nervously asks the blonde.

"Since I was a child. Charles found me stealing food in the kitchen."

"Ah."

They sit in silence a little while longer and Raven proceeds to stare at her and it makes Victoria wonder when Charles will be back. But this time Raven starts talking and it nearly startled her.

"So what can you do?"

"Excuse me?"

"What can you do? What is your mutation? What makes you _special_?" she accentuated that last word in particular.

"Well, I can, I mean…"

"She can control the temperature of her skin and I guess she can also make you feel whatever she wants you to, just by her touch." Charles has returned with a tray in his hands.

"I never did that!" Victoria contradicts.

"No. But the fact that you can shield your mind from telepaths makes me think there is more to you than just hot and cold."

"You can´t read her mind?" Raven is very surprised "And how does that temperature thing work?"

Victoria smiles and walks over to her. "Give me your hand."

Raven hesitates and looks to Charles, he gives her a reassuring nod so she stretches out her hand to Victoria. She takes it and makes her feel first hot, then cold without making it hurt, like she did when the guys touched her. Raven shivers and takes her hand back looking in awe at Victoria.

"That is so cool!"

"I know that Charles is a telepath, but was is your power?"

Charles looks up from the cup he was just pouring tea into. He forgets to stop pouring because of his anticipation for what will happen, so he spills the tea on the tray and on his trousers. While Victoria is honestly confused Raven laughs.

"I´m sorry for the mess. It´s just…. It´s just that I know that Raven doesn´t like to show off her powers."

Victoria, now very intrigued, looks back at Raven.

"He is right, I don´t like to show myself … to strangers. But you are one of our kind, I´ll show you if you like."

And with this words Raven turns blue, her eyes go from blue to bright yellow and her hair changes the colour to red. She smiles brightly, then she changes her appearance again and a second Charles stands in front of Victoria. She turns around to the real one which is sitting on the sofa, trying to wipe off the tea stain on his leg. When she looks back at Raven she looks into a mirror. Or she thinks she is because Raven changed again to look like her.

"Wow! That is amazing! Can you take on every look you like?"

"Yes!" She answers proudly while turning back into her blonde and blue-eyed human form.

Charles gives up wiping and looks very pleased when he sees the two women getting along. They all sit down to have a cup of tea and talk. Victoria tells them the story of her childhood and the two of them tell her everything about finding each other and growing up together. Victoria envies them for having each other for all this time. She was alone most of her life. After some time they decide it´s getting late and they should go to bed. When Victoria nods and gets up to bid them goodbye Raven grabs her arm.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Home?"

"We won´t let you go home at night, all alone. We have so many spare bedrooms, I´ll show you one and you can stay here."

"That is a good idea, Raven." Charles agrees.

So Victoria has no other choice than to follow Raven upstairs and make herself at home in the bedroom she shows her. Before leaving Raven hugs her.

"I´m really happy you are here."

"Thanks for having me." Victoria answers unsurely.

"No. I mean it. It was about time we meet another one. You are like a missing part of our family."

"Wow, Raven. I don´t know what to say. Just this: It feels good not to be alone for once."

"See you in the morning!"

"Good night."

Raven leaves and closes the door silently behind her. Victoria is very moved by what she just said and wipes away a little tear before putting on the pyjama Raven left for her on the bed. When she finally lies down she is far too excited to close her eyes. Then she feels something she felt earlier in the bar for the first time. Like someone grabbed her head with both hands and is holding it now. She knows it is Charles and lets him in. Immediately after she lets her guard down she hears him speaking inside her head.

 _Thanks for letting me in._

 _I have nothing to hide._ She answers in her mind but immediately regretting it because the pictures of his bottom in the bar are popping into her mind as soon as she thinks it. He either doesn´t see them or is gentleman enough to ignore it because he makes no mention about her thoughts.

 _Do you trust me?_

 _I let you in, didn´t I?_

 _Will you try something tomorrow?_

 _What?_

 _Try to make me cry._

 _Excuse me?_

 _Or make me laugh for no reason. I don´t care. But try to make me feel something._

 _Why do you think I can do that?_

 _Because, as I already said earlier, I think there is more to you than hot and cold._

 _Good night, Charles._

Victoria seals her mind again and soon the feeling of someone holding her head is gone, too.

After that conversation Victoria is even more excited. Can she really make people feel what she wants them to feel? How will she do this? And wouldn´t she make a fool out of herself if it didn´t work? When she starts wondering if Charles saw her thoughts about his backside she decides to stop thinking. After a while she succeeds and falls asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"Damn it!"

Victoria awakes with a start. Something that sounded like glass fell to the floor and shattered very loudly, right outside her door. She listens to the female voice that now joins the swearing male one.

"Good morning to you, too, Charles."

"Shh. Not so loud."

"You think that didn´t wake her up already?" Raven says in a whisper, pointing to the mess on the floor.

"I wanted to bring her brea+++++++kfast."

"I can see that. Charles! You like her!"

"Shut up. She might hear us. No I don´t _like_ her, I´m intrigued…"

"Which is the same thing!"

"No it´s not."

"Yes it is, and you know it."

Victoria listens to them arguing. She can´t help but smile: Charles wanted to bring her breakfast to bed. What a nice thing to do, she thinks.

"He is intrigued by me," She whispers to herself. "Is that a good thing?"

She hasn´t got time to decide whether she likes what she heard because Raven opened the door without knocking and pops her head in.

"Good morning, sunshine!" she says in a sing-song voice.

Charles enters after Raven with closed eyes.

"Is everyone decent? Can I look?"

"It´s alright." The girls laugh.

He opens one eye first and then the other.

"Good morning. Sorry to wake you like that."

"He wanted to bring you breakfast!" Raven announces mockingly.

"Oh! How nice of you! What happened?" Victoria askes like she doesn´t know already, looking at Charles with a smile.

"Well, you find your breakfast on the floor, just outside your room. Raven startled me and I let go of the tray." He admits in shame.

"That´s because he wanted to sneak into your room." Raven whispers in Victoria´s ear so only she could hear her.

"Hey! What are you whispering?!"

"Nothing, nothing. I´ll leave you two to it." Raven jumps up, winks back at Victoria and leaves the room with the door shut behind her.

They are both dumbfounded and just look around the room. After a while Charles starts to feel weird, just standing in her room without saying anything, so he clears his throat.

"Well, since the breakfast didn´t make it to you, would you like to go to the breakfast? I have got leftovers in the kitchen?"

"Sounds like a good idea. Let me get dressed first."

"Oh, oh, sure! I´ll be outside cleaning up the mess."

After a while she opens the door and finds Charles leaning against the opposite wall. He obviously just finished cleaning, the floor is still wet.

"Ready?"

"Yep, let's go."

They walk silently down the hall when Victoria remembers their talk from the prior night.

 _Make me feel something._

She still doesn´t know if she would at least try it. She doesn´t really believe in his theory that there is more to her. Charles is looking sideways at her, considering whether to try and read her mind again. But he decides better not to, he doesn´t want to make her angry or lose her trust.

When they reach the kitchen they set the table together and have breakfast while talking about trivial things. Just before they finished Raven enters the kitchen. She looks a little disappointed seeing them out of her room but sits down with them anyway. After they cleaned the table and did the dishes Victoria feels like she overstayed her welcome.

"Well, I guess I better go now. Have some things to do, you know."

"You don´t have to. You can stay as long as you may like." Charles tells her.

"No, no. I have to get home."

Charles nods, "I understand."

He and Raven walk her to the door when Raven decides she wants to go with her.

"I am very capable of going home alone, Raven. It´s not even dark." Victoria laughs, but Raven insists on coming with her. Victoria doesn´t mind her company and agrees.

The women walk along the street sharing an umbrella. The rain is heavy and they have to avoid huge puddles every now and then. When they finally reach a bus stop they have to run to get the bus. Out of breath, wet but laughing they sit together.

"So, what do you think of Charles, Vic?"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on! You like him, don´t you?"

"I haven´t thought about it."

"He was lonely for so long. You are good for him."

"Oh, no. Come on now. Don´t be ridiculous. I only know him like… a day?"

"I know. But still."

"You really think so?"

"See? You DO like him!"

"I admit I find him quite attractive. But right now I am far more interested in his knowledge than his looks."

"What do you mean?"

Victoria takes a deep breath.

"He is the only one I´ve ever met who could tell me at least a little bit about who I am. I was abandoned by my own family, for goodness 'sake, bullied by other children because I scared them. For a very long time I was scared of myself, too. Now you two come along, and you are the only people I ever came across who are at least remotely like me. I won´t risk this for a stupid, immature crush."

"You have a crush on him!"

"Did you even listen to a single word I just said?" Victoria laughs.

"No. Not until you said "crush"." Raven laughs, too.

When the bus stops they have to get out in the rain again. They get under the umbrella again and walk into a side-street. A few meters in Victoria turn left and Raven follows her up some steps towards a bedraggled door. They enter and walk up a staircase until they reach the door to Victoria´s flat. The walls in the hall are grey and covered in graffiti.

Victoria´s flat only has one room and a small bathroom. It is very dark for there is only one tiny window. She is a little ashamed for where she lives but Raven can see that she tried to make the most of it: There are some colourful flowers on a small table and a beautiful painting of a rose garden is hanging on the wall. Some pretty cushions decorate the two chairs by the window, and a bowl of fresh fruit sits on what seems to function as a kitchen counter.

"Please, sit down." Victoria offers Raven one of the chairs, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Yes, please." Raven answers while sitting down in one of the chairs.

Victoria comes over with two glasses of very cold water and hands one over to Raven. When Raven looks at the glass in surprise Victoria grins suspiciously.

"You chilled that, didn´t you?" Raven figured out.

Victoria nods and they laugh again.

"It´s amazing. Do you really think you can do that feel thing, too? The one Charles talked about?"

"I haven´t tried it, but I don´t think I can."

"Try it!" Raven rolls up her sleeve eagerly like she is about to donate blood. Holding it out to Victoria she expectantly looks at her.

"I´m not sure…"

"What´s there not to be sure about? Try it. If it doesn´t work you´ll at least know."

Victoria knows she is right. And Raven does, too. She stretches her arm so far towards Victoria she has to sit on the very end of the chair.

"Fine. But please relax. If you fall off the chair you will feel pain not caused by me."

Victoria waits for Raven to lean back into her chair, then gets up to push her own closer to her test object. When she sits back down she reaches for Raven´s wrist and carefully places her hand on it. She can feel her pulse, her heart is racing.

"If you are afraid we don´t have to do this."

"I´m not afraid! I´m excited. Come on, try something."

"Okay, say stop whenever… if ever it is too much for you."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes."

"Okay."

Victoria waits a minute or two until she feels Raven´s pulse slowing down. She then closes her eyes, too, and tries to concentrate. The first thing that pops into her mind are Charles´ words.

 _Make me cry._

She concentrates on sad moments of her live, which she has many to choose from, and tries to transfer that feeling to Raven. After a while she starts to feel stupid and wants to stop when she suddenly feels something somewhere near her heart.

Like a drop of blood froze over and is now pushing through her veins. Ice cold. She can feel it flowing through her chest into her arm, down to her elbow, past her wrist, leaving a cold trail. When it reaches her hand it feels like it is building up. The next moment Raven´s arm twitches beneath her fingers. The coldness has entered her body and is sending a shiver down her spine. But Raven stays silent and doesn´t pull her arm away or even open her eyes.

Victoria opens her eyes to see how Raven would react to what just happened. She doesn´t feel the cold anymore, so she pulls back her hand. When she looks up into Ravens face her mouth falls open. A tear is running down her cheek.

"Raven?"

Raven opens her eyes. More tears are gathering in the corner of her eyes, spilling and leaving a wet trail down her face.

"Oh god, Raven." Victoria pulls her into her arms.

"I am so sorry. What have I done? Are you mad at me?"

"Are you kidding me?" Raven pulls out of the embrace and looks at Victoria in disbelief.

Victoria feels like crying herself, thinking that she just drove away her only friend.

"That was amazing."

"It was?"

"It felt so cold on my wrist, but then it flooded my whole body and I felt so…so sad. How did you do that?"

"I don´t know. I just thought of something sad and suddenly something cold moved from my heart towards my hand."

"Charles was right. He was right."

"What do I do now?"

"Tell him." Raven pulls out her phone, types something and holds it up to her ear.

Victoria, suddenly realising what Raven is doing tries to stop her.

"Don´t call h…"

"Charles. It´s Raven. Victoria here has something to tell you." Raven then throws the phone into Victoria´s lap. "Tell him. Now."

"He…Hello, Charles?"

"Yes. Victoria. What is it? Are you alright?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Yes, I´m fine. It´s just…" Victoria hesitates.

"I´m starting to worry here, Victoria."

"You are right, Charles."

"I am what?"

"You are right."

"About what?"

"About my abilities."

There is a moment of silence. Charles processes what Victoria just told him.

"You tried it with Raven." He sounds a little hurt.

"Yes, I am sorry. She kind of persuaded me."

"Could you get her on the phone again?"

"Of course." She passes the phone back to Raven, a little confused by his weird reaction to what was rather big news to her.

"Yes." Raven answered on the phone. And again, "Yes."

When she finally hangs up she smiles broadly at Victoria.

"What is it? What did he say?"

"Pack some stuff, we are going back."

"Why?"

"You are a mutant, Victoria. And, as you just proved, a very powerful one. Charles wants you to come back home and stay for at least a couple of days."

"Couldn´t he just ask me himself?" Victoria is getting a little angry now.

"You know how he is…"

"No. I fucking don´t. I met him yesterday. I know nothing about him."

"Vic… please. Don´t you want to come back with me? You said it yourself, you don´t want to lose us again so soon."

"Oh, so you did listen."

"Of course I did."

Victoria calms down a little. She realises that Raven is the wrong person to take her anger out on.

"I´m sorry. I didn´t want to snap at you like that."

"It´s okay. But will you please come back home with me?"

"This is my home."

"Please. Charles can help you, and we can all help each other. Mi casa es su casa. Or do you really want to keep on living here?"

"I know it´s not much. But I´ve been living here for a long time now."

"You don´t have to move in with us, if you don´t want to. Please just come and stay for a few days first. See how you feel and let us work out something together."

"Well, I am the one who came to find Charles. It would be stupid not to go now. Now that I may need him more than ever. And I kind of need you, too."

"I already told you, you are like a missing family member that finally found her way back home."

The two hug for a moment then Victoria grabs a back and throws in some clothes and other stuff she may need.

When they step outside it stopped raining. They take a bus back and walk up the street to the Xavier mansion.

"Well, I haven´t been gone long." Victoria says to herself, when they stand in front of the iron gate. Raven heard her and smiles.

They walk up to the front door and enter the house, only to find Charles sitting on the staircase in the hall. He impatiently waited for them. When they enter he stands up and looks at Victoria, noticing her angry look.

"I´ll go take a shower." Raven runs up the stairs before anyone can say something.

Charles steps closer to Victoria and takes her back from her, carrying it over to the staircase and putting it on one of the steps. Victoria says nothing.

"Why are you so angry?" Charles asks.

"I basically told you that I just discovered a whole new side of my powers and all you could do was blaming me for not trying it on you."

She feels the invisible hands on her head again, indicating his attempt to enter her mind again.

"You have very functioning vocal cords. Use them."

He stares at her for a second, amused, a smile playing around the corner of his mouth.

"All right. I´ll use them. I am sorry for my reaction, I was a little surprised and wanted to talk to Raven if she would be okay with you staying with us for a while."

"And you never thought of asking me, if I´d be okay with it?"

"You are right. I didn´t." He seems to only realise that now. "Wow. I actually didn´t even think of asking you. I am sorry."

"And?"

"And? ...Oh! And would you like to stay a while with us? To figure out how far your powers go and how you can use them. Maybe answer as many of your questions as we possibly can?"

"Sounds like a good idea." She finally smiles.

Raven, ,who sits upstairs out of view but within earshot, lets out a sigh and gets up to actually take a shower. Victoria walks over to her bag, picks it up and looks at Charles.

"Same room I stayed in last night?"

"If you like."

She nods and Charles takes the bag from her to carry it up to her room. She walks besides him, unsure what will happen to her next. Will she find more hidden powers? Will Charles and Raven still trust her, although she is able to manipulate their feelings? Will they cast her out in the end, too?

When they enter her room he places the bag on the bed. When he notices Victoria´s worried look he stops and looks at her. She looks back at him, finally closing her eyes and letting him into her head. She wants him to see her worries, she wants him to say that everything will be fine.

He steps closer and takes her in his arms, whispering in a soft voice:

"We will never cast you out, Victoria. You are one of us. As long as you want us to be your family, we are happy to have you. You are safe now. You can make this place your home whenever you want."

His words take a lot of weight of her mind and when he finally lets go of her she manages a smile.

"Thank you."

"You are very welcome. Ah, and by the way: Thanks for the compliment."

He turns to leave.

"What compliment?" she asks confused.

"I saw your thoughts about my bum." He leaves the room with a cheeky grin.

She immediately covers her face with her hands and slumps onto the bed. She doesn´t know if she wants do die right then and there. Death by embarrassment.

"Grrrr ... get a grip, stupid!" she says out loud.

After a while she manages to maintain a normal colour of her face again and gets up to start unpacking. When she opens the door of the wardrobe a huge spider comes running out, obviously startled by Victoria. It vanishes under the bed, leaving behind thick cobwebs in the wardrobe. Victoria takes out one of the hangers to put her jacket on it. When she blows on it a thick cloud of dust fills the air, Victoria coughs. She then sees that all the other hangers and shelfs are covered in heavy dust, too. She wonders for how long this room was unoccupied.

A knock on the door puts a sudden end to her thoughts. Turning around she sees Raven popping her wet haired head into the room.

"May I come in?" she laughs and enters, seating herself on the bed.

"Raven? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"How long… I mean, when was the last time someone visited you, you and Charles?"

"We rarely get visitors." Raven answers in a hollow voice.

"You two were alone all this time?"

"Yep." She seems to be on the verge of crying, so Victoria wants to cheer her up.

"About time you finally got me, eh?" She nudges her with her shoulder and grins.

Raven looks up, a single tear runs down her cheek but she is smiling, too.

"I couldn´t be happier. I had Charles, now I have you, too. It´s perfect."

The girls hug again. Raven then takes Victoria by her hand and pulls her off the bed.

"Come on, lazy! I show you the house."

The girls run around the house like 10 year olds. Giggling, whispering, hiding behind curtains. Raven shows Victoria the countless bedrooms of the huge mansion. There are at least two ballrooms and a huge kitchen as well as a dining room big enough to hold 100 people.

"Who the hell built this?" Victoria asks in awe while standing under s the crystal chandeliers in one of the ballrooms.

"Some of the Xavier's ancestors."

"It belongs to Charles now?"

"Yes."

"Where is the rest of his family?"

"Dead." A male voice says.

Victoria spins around to see Charles standing in the doorframe.

"I´m sorry."

"Don´t be. My parents died a while ago and left me this beautiful house." He starts walking towards Victoria and only stops when he stands in front of her, right under the chandelier.

"I´m hungry," Raven says, "someone up for some take-out?"

"Yeah, lets order some." Charles answers.

The three of them go to sit in the kitchen. After they ordered their food they sit down at a little wooden table and wait.

"Maybe there are more like you?"

"What do you mean, Charles?" Raven asks.

"Maybe there are more people like Victoria. People, who are different and are looking for answers."

"I´m sure they are." Victoria answers.

"We are stronger together."

"What is your point, Charles?" The girls are confused.

"If there are more people out there, mutants I mean, who are wondering where their place in the world is… maybe we should offer them one here."

"You mean let them move in?" Raven´s mouth is hanging open.

"Let them live here. Work together to find answers to our questions and use to our powers."

Charles is interrupted by the door bell and after their food arrived all ideas of a place to live and work for mutants are wiped off their minds. They eat together, open a bottle of wine and continue to talk about stuff that will neither change the world nor even matter in the morning.

"It´s getting late. I´ll go to bed." Raven stands up yawning.

"Good night."

Charles gets up to get another bottle of wine, while Victoria grabs a blanket and snuggles up in it.

"Are you cold?" Charles asks when he comes back and sits next to her.

"I was. But the blanket is nice and warm."

He nods and pours them two more glasses of wine.

"Thanks for letting me stay, Charles." Victoria whispers.

"I am pretty sure you already thanked me, but again: You are very welcome."

Victoria looks at him for a while. He takes a sip of his drink before noticing her staring.

The light of the fireplace reflects in his bright blue eyes. He smiles softly. Victoria then rests her head on his shoulder. He is surprised at first but puts his arm around her. With the other hand he pulls at the blanket to cover him, too. Victoria doesn´t know if it is because of the wine or because of Charles that she feels warm and safe.

They sit for a while like that, no one saying anything.

"I´m sorry for staring at your butt." She finally whispers.

"Excuse me?" Charles laughs looking down at her in surprise.

She looks up to him grinning.

"You said you saw it in my head. It was an accident."

"I see."

"Won´t happen again."

"You staring or me finding out about it?" Now he is grinning, too.

"Definitely you finding out about it." She winks at him.

They´re both laughing loudly now while he holds her a little tighter and she snuggles up to him a bit more.


	5. Chapter 5

Victoria wakes up by the sun shining in her face through the curtains. She has a slight headache due to a glass of wine too much. Or two. Or three. The bright sunlight enhances her pain so she pulls the covers up over her face and closes her eyes as tightly as possible. Suddenly the memory of last night hits her, the next second she´s sitting upright in her bed, eyes wide open in shock, all pain forgotten.

"Oh my god" she whispers, "What happened?"

The last thing she remembers is snuggling up to Charles on the sofa and looking up into his bright blue eyes. He smiled down at her.

"Damnit. He´s gorgeous." She falls back on the pillow. "That´s not at all what I came for."

A knock on the door pulls her back to reality. "Yes?"

Raven enters the room.

"Oh my god. The angels send you!" Victoria pulls her to sit on the bed and explains her situation in a whisper.

"And you can´t remember what happened afterwards?" Raven asks grinning.

Victoria shakes her head.

"Oh, this is too good, too exciting!"

"Stop it Raven or I´ll regret I told you about it. Will you help me?"

"What can I do?"

"Have you seen Charles, yet? Did he act – I don´t know – strangely?"

"Haven´t seen him, yet."

"Could you find him and…"

"Find who?" Charles´ head pops through the door that Raven has left ajar.

The girls look startled.

"Sorry, didn´t mean to interrupt you, carry on, I´ll be going."

"No, no!" Raven calls after him. Victoria looks at her in surprise.

"Come in, sit down. We were talking about that guy that works in the bakery down the street."

Victoria looks confused.

"Yeah, yeah. He´s totally into Vic here. And she asked me if I could give him a message."

Victoria looks like she wants to hide under the covers again.

"What message?" Charles asks intrigued.

"That she´s not interested."

"Poor lad. By the way, is he new there? Never saw him there, only women."

Victoria hides under the covers.

"Everything alright?" she feels his hand on her back on top of the cover.

"There is no bakery-guy." A muffled sound emerges from under the cover. Raven sees her opportunity to flee the awkward situation.

"Raven tried to cover for me. We were talking about you." Victoria speaks into her pillow, hoping she will suffocate. The headache, the embarrassment, it´s too much.

"I wanted her to go and see if you were acting differently today. Like maybe something happened yesterday." She couldn´t hold her breath long enough to pass out.

"But, what happened yesterday?" Charles asks confused.

"You tell me." Victoria says sarcastically, pulling the cover down from her face.

It took Charles a second to understand what she was talking about, but then it hit him.

"Oh. Oh! Got it." He laughs. "I could try to retrieve the memories of the evening for you. Or do you have more butt staring to hide?" he asks with a wink.

"No. I decided I won´t hide it anymore."

"I see." They burst into laughter.

"Well. Shall we?"

Victoria nods, scared of what she might see. She feels two invisible hands holding her head gently, she closes her eyes and lets Charles into her mind.

After a few seconds some blurry pictures emerge in front of her inner eye. The two of them sitting on the sofa side by side. Them laughing, talking, drinking. To her relief she sees that Charles seems to be equally drunk as her.

The next images are similar to what she remembered last: His beautiful blue eyes in close-up. What she didn´t remember is him putting his hand on her back smiling at her. He comes closer and closer and finally leans in to kiss her gently. The memory of the touch of his lips sends a jolt through her body. He kisses her again before they continue to cuddle snuggled up in the blanket. After a while she fell asleep, the next memory is of her waking up by the sunlight, so she opens her eyes and Charles leaves her mind. They look at each other, not saying anything, for a while.

"I carried you to bed after you fell asleep." He says shyly. She never saw him like that.

"Thank you. For carrying me. And for the memories, too."

"Apart from the kiss, nothing happened."

She nods, not sure what to say, then she has an idea. She slides closer to him, locking eyes.

"Do you trust me?" she whispers, and it´s his turn to nod.

She puts a hand to where his heart is, takes a deep breath and concentrates on the images of the kiss. She feels something gathering near her own heart. Nothing cold like when she made Raven cry. More like a warm bubble of energy floating in her blood, travelling through her veins, down her arm, into her hand. And then it´s gone, it left her body.

She looks up to Charles. He closed his eyes to. A smile forms on his lips, his cheeks turn a little pink. Victoria takes her hand from him and he opens his eyes to meet hers.

"I feel so happy and warm."

"I know."

"You did that to me?" the colour in his face is gone again.

"I wanted to let you know how I felt when you kissed me."

He looks at her dumbfounded.

"So… So you´re not mad at me?"

"For what?"

"For taking advantage of you?

"Oh come on, we were both a little drunk." They laugh.

"I wish I would´ve remembered it without your help, though." Victoria admits sadly.

"I think there is a solution to that problem, too?"

"Wha-"Victoria started to ask. But she was interrupted by Charles lips on hers. He kisses her passionately but by far too shortly for her liking.

When he pulls away he smiles at her one last time before leaving her room.

She stares after him for quite a while before realising she actually just stared at her door.

So she gets out of bed humming and starts to dress.

Best morning ever.


	6. Chapter 6

It´s a beautiful day, the sun is shining and in her good mood Victoria put on a dress with pink and lilac flowers on it. She feels like dancing after Charles kissed her and nearly can´t hold up a normal pace down the hall, for she would rather be running to see him again as soon as possible.

She passes Ravens room. The door is wide open and Victoria finds a shattered plate on the floor with what used to be a sandwich scattered around.

Assuming Raven went to the kitchen to get some supplies for clean-up, Victoria continues her way to find Raven and Charles downstairs. Halfway down the stairs she stops in her tracks. She has a by now very familiar feeling of two invisible hands holding her head. Smiling she closes her eyes and lets Charles into her mind again.

 _Run._

Victoria opens her eyes again. Nothing else, just this one word. He sounded serious. Victoria starts to get worried.

She descends the staircase skipping every other step. Standing in the hallway she listens. Nothing. She looks around to the front door. She can´t just leave them behind. Should she call the police? What help will they be when this is another mutant?

She decides to call them anyway and to tell them to hurry up for there is "some kind of" intruder in their home possibly threatening two of the inhabitants.

After she hangs up she hears something behind the door to the library. She approaches cautiously, putting her ear to the door to listen, but she can´t hear anything else. She takes a deep breath and opens the door to enter.

Charles is standing opposite from her and looking at her in shock. While searching the room for a potential threat Victoria spots a man sitting in the chair by the fire place.

"Do come in, dear," He says to her with a slick voice. "Why would you lie to me, Professor? I asked if there was anyone else."

"She is none of your business."

"But she is all yours, am I right?"

Victoria enters slowly and walks over to Charles. When she looks past him she finds Raven in her blue form laying behind the sofa, obviously passed out.

Charles gives her a reassuring look, telling her not to worry.

"Who are you?" she asks the stranger with a firm voice, stepping closer to him. But Charles grabs her wrist to hold her back. The man starts to laugh.

"My name is Sebastian Shaw, at your service pretty lady." He stands up and comes closer.

 _Don´t use your powers on him._ She hears Charles in her head. She didn´t even noticed him entering her mind.

Shaw is now standing right in front of her. "Rumour has it that you, my darling, are very special. I hear that your powers are extraordinary and that we would complement each other superbly."

"I don´t know what you are talking about." Victoria simply lies.

"Oh. You know exactly what I´m talking about." He puts a hand to her throat and pushes her back against the bookcase. Charles just stands there. Victoria looks for him to help but he didn´t even turn around. Looking on the floor she sees a circle around his feet, like someone drew it on the floor with ashes from the fireplace.

Victoria couldn´t breathe, Shaw´s hand around her neck was too tight. She nearly lost consciousness when Shaw suddenly pulled his hand back letting her slide to the floor.

Looking up through heavily lidded eyes she saw Shaw looking down onto his hand. It was red and bubbly, Victoria burned him badly.

He pulls her up with his good hand and pushes her to sit in the chair he was sitting in at the beginning.

"I knew it. You are a liar, same as your little boyfriend here."

She looks over to Charles. He gives her an apologetic look and her eyes wander down to the ash circle again.

"Want to see a magic trick?" Shaw must have followed her look.

He steps over to Charles and pushes him out of the circle. Suddenly a figure appears out of nowhere looking like the devil himself, wearing an evil grin.

"I was just demonstrating something, Azazel. I´ll call you if I need you." Shaw says, and the creature called Azazel vanished as quickly as it came. Charles steps back into the circle looking at Victoria. That´s why he didn´t help her.

"Now, listen. You and I, we can be great together. Our powers combined will win us the earth."

"I won´t help you."

"Look, there is two ways we can do this: One: We help each other, we win together, rule together. Two: I´ll just take what I need from you."

"Just go and try it!"

An evil grin spreads on Shaw´s face.

"Vic. Please…" Charles whispers.

A deafening bang in the hallway announces the arrival of the police. Victoria feels like it´s all happening in slow motion: A woman entering the library with her gun drawn. Shaw calling for Azazel. Charles trying to reach out to Victoria before Azazel took Shaw and her by their arms and vanishes with them in thin air.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys. I´m sorry I didn´t update my story for so long but I had things to do. I´m back now with this very, very short chapter and there is more to come. So please stay tuned and don´t forget to review :)

* * *

Moira MacTaggert puts her gun away, still fazed by what she just saw. Saw for the second time after the Hellfire Club in Las Vegas. She was in town to meet with Professor Xavier when she heard the call over the police radio. Though being a CIA agent she couldn´t resist but answer it. She was the first to arrive and didn´t bother to wait for the officers. Never would she have expected to encounter these strange people here.

"Are you alright?" she asks the figure crouching over a blue woman on the floor. No answer. The woman moves, seems to gain consciousness again, and suddenly turns into a normal looking human right in front of Moira´s eyes. She takes a step back, hand on gun.

"Don´t be afraid." Charles stands up and stretches his hand out for Moira to shake it. "I´m Charles Xavier."

"Moira MacTaggert. CIA. What the fuck just happened?"

"I don´t know. But what I do know is that Victoria is gone." He looks to the floor, panic rising.

"She´ll be fine until we find her." Raven managed to stand up to and takes Charles in his arms.

"Sorry to interrupt but, those people… those…"

"Mutants?"

"Is that what you call them?"

"Yes."

"And is she, I mean…" she gives Raven an anxious look.

"Yes. We are mutants, too."

"Oh. You…you too?"

"Yes. What are you doing here?"

"I overheard the police radio. I heard someone from this place called for the police. Since I was looking for you anyways…"

"Why where you looking for me?"

"I encountered this man once before, saw what he and his people could do. Since no one believed me I wanted to find you, for you seem to be an expert in the field of mutations."

"I see."

At that moment they hear a man calling. They all go outside to find a police officer has just arrived.

"Thanks for your effort, but this is a CIA matter now." Moira says in an official voice flipping her ID at him. The officer scratches his head and thinks for a moment, then nods to them and leaves silently.

"Victoria must have called the police before she entered the library." Charles states absently, "How the hell are we going to find her?"

Raven starts crying. "What will they do to her?"

They stand there in the hallway, Charles holding the sobbing Raven and Moira wondering what she got herself into. Neither of them knows what to do or say.

"I should take you to the CIA."

Charles nods and pulls the door closed behind them.


	8. Chapter 8

Victoria is on her knees, she feels dizzy from the journey. She doesn´t know where she is but still feels where Charles tried to grab her arm before Azazel took her. She looks around and notices the light wooden floor. Just now she feels the floor moving, no, the whole building. But it is no building, she realizes she must be on a ship. And it´s terrifyingly dark on the ocean.

A hand roughly grabs her and pulls her to her feet. When she looks up she meets the cold eyes of Sebastian Shaw smirking at her. The hand that just pulled her up belongs to Azazel, she was really scared of the red-skinned man.

"So, now that we are finally alone. Why don´t we just sit down and have a nice little chat without your boyfriend interrupting? Please." Shaw indicates a bench and pushes her to sit down. He sits next to her facing her with a nasty smile.

"Me and you. We could own the world. The people would kneel for us. Be my queen."

"What if I don´t want to be your queen?"

"Oh I see. You´d rather be Xavier´s queen, am I right? Did he tell you how special you are? Did he promise to take you in and be there for you?"

Victoria just looks to the ground.

"See, I could take you in. I can be there for you. More than that. I can give you the world. Our powers combined will make us invincible."

"What do you want with my powers?"

"I can absorb energy. You can give energy. See where I´m going with this?"

"You want to harvest my energy to overpower the world?"

"If you say it like that it sounds so unromantic. I want you to give me your energy by your own free will. But just to make your decision easier: If you don´t, I will actually just harvest it from you. And it might hurt," he winks at her, "so what do you prefer? Are you a romantic or are you into pain?"

She is at the verge of tears but fights them. She doesn´t want to show weakness, Instead she leans in closer, not breaking eye contact with Shaw. His smile fades away and he leans in, too. When her lips are nearly touching his ear she whispers: "Fuck you." Then she leans back looking at him provocatively.

He starts smiling again, grinning actually.

"Oh, so you like to play?" he strokes her chin and cheeks with one of his fingers. "I like that. But be warned: I always win." With a snap Azazel is by his side.

"Take her downstairs."

Azazel grabs Victoria by the shoulder.

"I´ll be generous and give you time to change your mind."

With those words Azazel and Victoria vanish from the deck in a swirl. She falls to her knees again, opening her eyes in a darkened room. Azazel doesn´t even look at her before vanishing into thin air again.

Victoria crawls through the dark until she reaches the wall. She then follows it to the left until she reaches the corner of the room, where she sits down and tries to calm and sort her thoughts. Her surrounding is pitch black but after a while her eyes accustom to the dark and she can make out some shapes and outlines. At least there was no one else in the room. She sees what seems to be a sofa in front of the opposite wall and the outlines of a door but nothing else. She decides to stay in her corner as far away from the door as possible.

She closes her eyes again and tries to hear something. There are a few muffled voices above her but she can´t understand what they are saying for they are too far away.

"Well, how am I going to get out of here?" she whispers to herself taking a few deep breathes.

She rests her head on the wall behind her. _What would Charles do?_ She thinks.

While thinking of him his bright blue eyes pop up in front of her inner eye. He is smiling at her and she tries to reach out to touch his lips. She wants to kiss him again so badly. It´s unbelievable she only met him a few days ago. Then the image of his butt comes to her mind and she starts grinning.

 _Look at me, grinning like an idiot while being held hostage by a psychopath. Well done, Victoria. Now, what do I do? What would he tell me to do?_

 _If I could only ask him. How far does his telepathy reach? Would he be able to hear me? I´m sure he already tried. But I didn´t feel anything. Why am I able to block him anyways? No one else seems capable of that. I´d love to have that power. What good are mine? I can´t even use them against Shaw or he´ll just absorb it and use it on me._

 _Charles! Charles, where are you?_

 _I´m here._

Victoria jumps to her feet. Looking around in the dark but she is still alone.

 _Charles?_

 _I´m here. I can hear you. We will get you._

 _I´m on a ship. I don´t know where._

 _I know. We are on our way._

Suddenly there is a loud bang. The ship seems so sway more than ever. Another bang and Victoria falls to the ground. She panics, runs towards the door and tries to melt her way through the lock. It works, the metal starts to glow under her touch and finally gives way.

She steps outside, instinctively turns right and runs. She reaches a staircase and ascends it quickly. After two more staircases she is finally outside again but the ship is rocking hard and something seems to attack it. She screams when she sees huge metal chains rising next to the ship like tentacles of a giant squid. But she can also make out another ship approaching so she decides to jump of the rail into the deep, dark water.

When she reached the surface again Victoria starts swimming as fast as she can, keeping her body warm with her powers. But seconds later she hears a horrible, ear-splitting sound behind her. Looking back she sees the chains tying themselves around the ship, ripping it in two.

She keeps swimming but starts to feel the pull of the sinking ship. She stops keeping herself warm to use all the energy she has to get away from the ship. She struggles and fights the waves until she finally moves away from the death trap. But it cost her a lot of energy and she is just too exhausted and too cold to move any longer. So she just floats in the water barley keeping consciousness.

 _Victoria! Where are you?_

 _Charles._ Even in her thoughts she can´t manage more than a faint whisper.

 _Please Charles. Help._

 _Where are you? Victoria? VICTORIA?!_

She´s too exhausted to answer and passes out.


	9. Chapter 9

This is for Beuniquebeyou and Grace.

Happy birthday to you guys.

* * *

"Victoria. Vic. Please wake up! "

They brought Victoria, and someone named Eric, back to the mansion, but while Eric and Charles are downstairs in Charles´ office, Victoria hasn´t gained consciousness yet. They found her floating near the sinking ship and thought she was dead. But she still had a pulse so they brought her back here and are keeping her warm with all the blankets they have. Raven hasn´t left her bedside the whole time.

"Raven?"

"Oh my god! Vic! Welcome back!" tears are running down her cheeks.

"How long have I been gone?"

"4 hours. How are you?"

"I´m fine. Just tired and cold."

"What did they do to you?"

"Nothing really. Shaw just threatened me, and locked me up."

"How did you end up in the water?"

"When I felt the ship rocking I melted my way through the door."

"That´s my girl." Raven hugs Victoria tightly, laughing shakily.

"You did great, Victoria." Charles stands leaning against the door frame. When he steps closer to the bed to sit down at her side Victoria can see dark rings under his eyes, he looks tired.

"Vic," He sighs, eyes closed, "Vic."

New tears were running down Raven´s cheeks, she squeezed Victoria´s hand one last time and silently left the room.

When Victoria looks back at Charles she meets his blue eyes, they are not as bright as they usually are.

"Charles…"

"You scared me, Vic. You scared me to death."

"I was scared to death too, I thought I had to drown out there."

"I…" but he can´t find the right words. He just hugs her tightly instead.

"I´m fine Charles. I´m fine, you saved me."

"No, I didn´t," he looks to the floor again, "after I couldn´t hear you anymore… I jumped into the water. There was someone else down there, I had to stop him from killing himself. It wasn´t until the water cleared a little when we saw your floa…" his voice breaks away, "I thought you were dead." He whispers, looking deep into her eyes.

"I´m not, Charles, I´m not. I´m here."

He nods and hugs her again.

A subtle knock on the door makes them break their embrace. A tall man enters, short hair, piercing blue eyes, he looks grim.

"Victoria. This is Eric."

"Hey, Victoria. How are you feeling?"

He has a soothing voice and as soon as he starts talking his grim face lightens up.

"I´m fine, thanks for asking. How are you? I heard you nearly died in that water, too?"

"Ah, it was nothing. But I´m fine, too, yeah."

"Can you manage to stand up?" Charles asks her doubtingly.

"Yeah, sure." Victoria swings her feet around to stand up but she does it too quickly and promptly falls down again.

"Hey! Not so fast." Eric says, stepping forward to catch her. He swiftly puts his arm around her to support her and takes her hand to lead her out of the room. Charles stands there for a moment staring after them, not really following what just happened. It would have been his job to support her, wouldn´t it? Then he follows them into the hall and downstairs without saying anything.

"Where are we going?" Victoria asks.

Charles takes the chance to get beside them to look at Victoria. "You´ll see."

When they enter the library they find three people obviously awaiting them. Only Raven was a familiar face to her, she isn´t sure about the woman but she knows she hasn´t seen the bespectacled man before. Victoria stops walking, not knowing what´s going on. Raven stands up and takes Victoria from Eric´s arms.

"Vic, these are Victoria MacTaggert and Dr. Hank McCoy, they are with the CIA."

"Nice to meet you." The woman smiles at her. Victoria remembers her now: She saw her briefly when Shaw took her.

"Nice to meet you, too." She shakes her hand.

Hank nods, saying nothing.

Raven steers Victoria over to a sofa and sits her down while Eric and Charles remain standing near the door.

"Now that we are all together, and have been introduced," Charles starts speaking, "what shall we do about Shaw?"

"Kill him." Eric whispers, not so quietly.

"Well, we can´t do much, can we? We failed already."

"Make him suffer." Eric says, this time not even bothering to lower his voice. Charles shoots him a pleading look.

"We need more manpower." Hank suggests.

"What do you mean?" Raven asks, not taking her eyes off him.

"Well," noticing Ravens look he starts to stumble, "There… ehm…must be more, right? I…I mean more mutants. We need to find them."

"He´s right. We need more of you people." Moira nods, looking expectantly at Charles. He clears his throat looking around.

"I agree. We need to find more mutants who are willing to help us."

"We could use Cerebro to amplify your telepathic powers." Hank says.

"Zebra- what?" Victoria asks confused.

Hanks seems excited and eagerly explains to her how he developed a device called "Cerebro", which is Spanish for brain. He tells her how it can be used to strengthen brainwaves and how Charles could use it to find other mutants.

"It´s a great idea. We will try it later, but we all had an exhausting night and should rest. We´ll meet later at Devision X."

They all nod and start getting up except from Victoria who remains in the seat, silently mouthing _Devison what?_

While Hank and Moira leave, Raven shows Eric a room he can stay in. Victoria stands up, too. When walking past Charles he hold her back by putting an arm around her waist. She looks at him in surprise and opens her mouth to say something. But Charles shakes his head to stop her. He pulls her closer, not breaking eye contact.

 _Charles. What are you doing?_

He smiles, their lips only inches apart.

 _Charles…_

He kisses her passionately, and she can feel how a warm spark forms at her heart, wandering through her chest, shoulder, arm, into her hand, fingers and leaving her body completely. Charles stops kissing her and looks her deep into her eyes, warmth spreading through his body.

"I love you, too."


End file.
